"Good morning maggots." The Warden said as he stood infront of the orb, grabbing everyone's attention.
"From now on, things are going to be different than the previous two days for two reasons. One, you will no longer be accompanied by the guards into the forest. Secondly, if you wish to stay in this Santuary, each of you will be required to pay taxes in the form of monster stones every day. The going rate is, five imp monster stones, ten Acid Slime or Sticky Slime monster stones, eight Earth Slime, Savage Wolf or Goblin monster stones." The Warden said and all the prisoners were immediately enraged. Even though their numbers were significantly a lot less than before, there were still hundreds of prisoners in the Sanctuary. So, based on the amount of sightings of monsters they have seen so far, there wasn't enough for everyone to pay the tax being imposed by the Warden. They will be forced to go deeper into the forest where the more powerful monsters were or....or they would be forced to steal from each other. And most of them realized this.
"These fucking bastards." Mickey said while angrily gritting his teeth, and both Xavier and Maria could see his veins bulging. Maria was sobbing silently, while Xavier glared at the Warden.
'I need to find a way out of this place. I can't go back to Genshin Capital, but maybe...' Xavier thought.
"We will not stand for this, you can't make us hunt those things!!!" A foolish prisoner stood up and shouted and the guards quickly pointed their guns at him, ready to shoot, but the Warden signalled for them to put their guns down.
"You do not have to hunt monsters if you don't want to, but if you don't, then you can no longer stay in this Sanctuary. This is government property, and you are criminals of the law, which means you are not entitled to receive any benefits from the government. So, if you want to stay here, then go out there and hunt those fucking monsters!!!" The Warden shouted as he walked towards the prisoner, and the prisoner gritted his teeth, as he realized there was nothing he could do.
"Now that you understand, go out there and pay your tax." The Warden said, and all the prisoners got to their feet and started walking towards the gate.
"Where should we go? West?" Mickey asked, turning to Xavier and Maria did the same.
"No, let's head to the north for now. If there is too much competition, we can go east where the goblins are. No need to tackle the strongest monsters just yet." Xavier said, as he wanted to see how strong the other monsters were before they decided which one would be their primary hunting target. As they walked, a few thoughts flickered through his mind, as he tried to remember what the Ashari said on the first day they got here.
'Right, that orb said that this is 'one of the few safe places' on the isle, not the only safe place. Plus, their is what the "Stigma Window(Attribute Info Deck)"said in the Points section.' He thought and brought up the description again to double check.
[Points: A numerical currency that can be used in the Stigma Window to increase your attributes or exchange for items using the Orbs of Eldara.]
'More than one Orb of Eldara means more than one orbs to use trade for points. But how do I find them though, maybe I should first check the city.' Xavier thought, and they soon entered the forest. He looked at the blue leaves on the trees and couldn't help but sigh in relief. Acid slimes were definitely easier to kill than the imps, and the scenery of the north gate was definitely better than the west. As they walked, they past many prisoners, most of them busy forming groups, and the others were already in groups hunting slimes.
"We aren't gonna find anything here, especially if we keep moving so slow " Mickey said impatiently as they haven't ran into a single slime over the last thirty minutes. The slimes were already cleared out by the prisoners who ran ahead of them, and their slow pace was irritating the hell out of Mickey.
"Shhh." Xavier said, as he heard fighting ahead and they soon came across two groups of prisoners fighting against each other. One group consisted of four members, while the other consisted of three members, but surprisingly, the second group was winning. There was a woman in the group who wielded a copper sword and was fighting furiously against two of them, while to two guys in her group fought the others. She looked experienced as she dodged an axe strike from the one of the men, and sent a quick stab into his throat with her sword.
"David!!" The other man screamed and looked at the woman furiously, while she had a look of surprise on her face, but she quickly regained her composure. She dodged a spear strike from the man, and grabbed the spear's shaft, before stabbing the man in his dominant arm. The man screamed and she kicked him in the jaw before pulling the spear out of his hands.
"Please, don-" But he never got to finish his last words as she stabbed him in the neck as well. The fight was finished soon after that as the woman helped the other two guys in her team and killed the other two men.
'Brutal.' Xavier thought as he spectated the fight while hiding inside the bushes. He looked over at Maria, who had a look of horror on her face, and he sighed as he wondered how the hell she found herself in prison. He then looked at Mickey, who had a calm look on his face as the woman and her group collected the monster stones and left.
"Seen enough yet?" Mickey asked turning towards Xavier
"Yeah, let's go east."